RAMALLAH, Feb 27 (JMCC) - Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Friday twice, first asking him to stop using violence against protesters and then asking him to step down, reports the Independent.

Britain's former prime minister made two unannounced calls to Colonel
Gaddafi on Friday – the day the Libyan President appeared in public and
exhorted a crowd of his hardcore supporters to defend the nation
against the uprising and crush the enemy behind it. That defiant call
to arms suggests that Col Gaddafi – who has rapidly returned to the
international pariah status he had before the deal in the desert he
negotiated with Mr Blair in 2004 – simply ignored the man who pioneered
the dictator's temporary rehabilitation by the West.

Currently serving as envoy to the Quartet, a Middle East working group comprised of the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia, Blair is credited with bringing Gaddafi in from the diplomatic cold during his tenure as prime minister.

The newspaper said that Blair made the calls at the behest of the UK foreign office. When the British government determined that it would like the Libyan leader to step down, Blair once again picked up the phone to convey that message.

Blair has served as the Quartet envoy since leaving his position as prime minister in 2007.